Shortcovers at Tools of Change Frankfurt – Your Reading Life, Always With You

Posted by Kobo Live
November 10, 2009

So many amazing things going on right now. Thousands of new books getting added every week. Over a thousand publishers sending titles. New apps in development. But while we’re getting bigger and better now, it’s worth taking a little time to talk about what’s missing from the current ebook experience and how it could be made better in the longer term. If the paper book has delivered value to book lovers for hundreds of years (No batteries! No instruction manual! Works when slightly wet!), what does the ebook need to do to inspire similar loyalty?

To take a first stab at some of these questions, I gave a talk at Tools of Change Frankfurt called “Your Reading Life, Always With You” about how ebooks could and should be better and how Shortcovers is working to get there. The TOC Frankfurt folks didn’t shoot video, but I did a dramatic recreation right afterwards so you can get close to the full conference experience. It has everything: teen romance, zombies, french horns, salacious reading, and a look inside the brain of a publisher in the digital age.